Newton A. Perry (January 6, 1908 – November 22, 1987) was an American

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

, attraction promoter, educator and swimming coach.

Early life

Perry was born in

Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, Lowndes County in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, Valdosta metropolitan statistical area, ...

, in 1908. Newton A. Perry, 79
" ''Ocala Star-Banner'', p. 4B (November 23, 1987). Retrieved July 11, 2012. After living in Tampa for several years, he and his family moved to the

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making ...

area in 1922. His father was a railroad conductor, and Ocala represented the midpoint of his train route. Perry was happy to discover that he could swim in the clean, clear water at Silver Springs, and he would walk the six miles from Ocala to the springs. In order to earn pocket change, he started teaching local residents to swim for twenty-five cents per lesson. In 1924, Perry became

Ocala High School Forest High School is a school near Ocala, Florida, United States. It has an EMIT (engineering) program. The school's colors are green and gold and the school mascot is the Wildcat. As of 2014, it had an enrollment of some 2,058. Forest High Sch ...

's swim coach and star swimmer; he was only 16 years old at the time. He once swam 25 miles in seven hours, 28 minutes. Perry attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in nearby Gainesville, and was a member of the

Florida Gators swimming and diving The Florida Gators swimming and diving program represents the University of Florida in the aquatics sports of swimming and diving. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Coll ...

team in 1933 and 1934. He graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in education, and later returned to complete a master's degree in education in 1958.

Career

Perry learned all he could about swimming, diving and life-guarding. When the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

published their aquatics safety manual during the 1920s, they selected Silver Springs to shoot the underwater photographs for their manuals. Perry served as the model in many of the Red Cross manual photographs. Silver Springs in the 1920s and 1930s was not that well known and the attraction owners, Carl G. Ray, Sr. and W. M. "Shorty" Davidson, would invite journalists from all over the country to come visit their attraction. Perry and his sisters would put on swimming exhibitions both the water's surface and under it. Some of those snapshots would appear in newspapers in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, Jacksonville, Tampa, and other large cities. ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine published several articles on Silver Springs and the Perry family. Ray and Davidson invited American sportswriter and short movie producer,

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an American sportswriter and poet known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you playe ...

, to vacation in the Ocala area and to be their guest on a tour of Silver Springs. While Rice was visiting the springs, he witnessed the aquatic abilities of Perry and was interested in what he saw. Rice set up his motion picture cameras to record the interesting footage of the swimmer both on the surface and under the surface of the water. Perry demonstrated his powerful freestyle up stream and then dove underwater to perform swimming backwards, somersaults, eating a banana, drinking a soda and other unusual underwater skills. He had stayed underwater for three minutes and 45 seconds. Over the next thirty years, Perry helped produce over 150 of Grantland Rice's "Sportlight" series short films. These films were human interest stories about fifteen minutes in length, which were shown before the featured movies at theaters across the country. The subjects included different themes like picnics, weddings, school rooms, track meets, night clubs with bands, and bartenders among other story lines. Rice once did a reel called "The Human Fish" featuring Perry, and proclaimed him as the "best swimmer in America."Ray Washington,
Ocala's Newt Perry: The Human Fish
" ''Ocala Star-Banner'', p. 10C (April 11, 1982). Retrieved July 12, 2012. Perry became a go-to consultant for Hollywood movies that involved on-location water scenes, and Florida's crystal-clear spring waters provided nearly ideal underwater filming locations. He played a significant role in the production of MGM's ''

Tarzan Finds a Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'' is a 1939 Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the fourth in the MGM ''Tarzan'' series to feature Johnny Weissmuller as the "King of the Apes" and the fourth of six films in which he ...

'' (1939) at Silver Springs and ''

Tarzan's Secret Treasure ''Tarzan's Secret Treasure'' is a 1941 American adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Sheffield. Based on the Tarzan character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, it is the fifth in ...

'' (1941) at Wakulla Springs through his relationship with actor-swimmer

Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller ( ; born Johann Peter Weißmüller, ; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Hungarian-born German American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive-swimming records o ...

who played Tarzan. He also influenced Universal Studio's decision to film the ''

Creature from the Black Lagoon ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars ...

'' and its sequels at Wakulla Springs and Silver Springs, as well as the hiring of Florida swimmer

Ricou Browning Ricou Ren Browning (February 16, 1930 – February 27, 2023) was an American stunt performer, filmmaker and actor. A skilled swimmer, he was known for his innovative underwater stunt work, notably in the 1954 film ''Creature from the Black Lagoo ...

to play the Creature in the movie's underwater sequences. He worked with several noted actors including Weissmuller, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Jayne Mansfield, Ann Blyth, Lloyd Bridges. In 1948, Perry spearheaded the development of the

Weeki Wachee Springs Weeki Wachee Springs is a natural tourist attraction located in Weeki Wachee, Florida, where underwater performances by "mermaids", women wearing fish tails as well as other fanciful outfits, can be viewed in an aquarium-like setting in the spri ...

attraction, and is credited with performing the first underwater shows there. His daughter Margaret Eileen Perry performed as one of the youngest mermaids ever at the springs in 1948 at age 13. It was later that year that Perry met his future wife Dot. Perry was president of the Florida Attraction Association and attending a convention at Miami Beach. Dot was training for the 1948 U.S. Olympic diving team in one-meter and tower diving. A mutual friend and former Olympic diver, Kathryn Rawls, introduced the two. An instant connection began when Perry climbed to the top of a 10-meter diving platform and started diving, dive for dive, with Dot. Dot found that Perry could do almost anything in the water and that led to a year-long, long-distance romance. Dot had signed with the "Water Follies," a local synchronized swimming act, after failing to qualify for the Olympic diving team. She toured Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America as their star diver.

Later life

After Perry and Dot's wedding in the fall of 1950, they moved to

San Marcos, Texas San Marcos () is a city and the county seat of Hays County, Texas, United States. The city is a part of the Greater Austin, Greater Austin Metropolitan Area. San Marcos's limits extend into Caldwell County, Texas, Caldwell and Guadalupe County, T ...

to develop Aquerena Springs, an underwater attraction similar to Weeki Wachee. After completing the development of Aquarena, Perry and his wife returned to Ocala. They founded an instructional swimming school in Ocala that remains in operation today. Perry's most successful swimming student was his nephew,

Don Schollander Donald Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. He won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1964 and 1968 S ...

, a five-time Olympic gold medalist at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

.Susan Smiley-Height,
The Perry legacy lives on
" ''Ocala Star-Banner'' (July 5, 2006). Retrieved July 12, 2012. Perry suffered strokes in 1975 and 1978 that left him partially paralyzed.Patti Griffiths,
Newt Perry: Still in the Swim
" ''Ocala Star-Banner'', p. 6B (January 3, 1987). Retrieved July 13, 2012. He was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.Florida Sports Hall of Fame, Inductees
Newt Perry
Retrieved July 12, 2012. He died in Ocala in 1987; he was 79 years old.

References

Bibliography

* Hollis, Tim,
Glass Bottom Boats & Mermaid Tails: Florida's Tourist Springs
', Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (2006). . * Vickers, Lu, and Sara Dionne, ''Weeki Wachee, City of Mermaids: A History of One of Florida's Oldest Roadside Attractions'', University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida (2007). .

External links

FloridaStateParks.org
– Official webpage of Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park
PerrysSwimSchool.com
– Official website of Perry's Swim School
WeekiWachee.com
– Official website of Weeki Wachee State Park
Photographs
at

Florida Memory Florida Memory or the Florida Memory Program (formerly known as the Florida Photographic Digital Imaging Project and Florida Memory Project) is a Library Services and Technology Act-funded internet-based digital outreach program providing free on ...